Dustin Tokarski Swatch Card

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It's that time of year where we think of goalies that are not currently playing in the NHL and wonder where they've been...

Today's subject is Dustin Tokarski, who can be so hot he looks like Tim Thomas or so cold that he looks like Scott Darling; there is seemingly no middle ground in his case; one need only look at his stats from last season alone in the AHL to see the disparity:

from HockeyDB

His statistics were the best on the Charlotte Checkers - the best team in the league - for whom he played 7 games, so roughly 10% of the season. In 21 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack, his numbers were dangerously close to starting a conversation about a demotion to the ECHL.

At 30 years of age, his window for NHL call-ups is getting smaller, but goalies get injured more and more often now, so he'll at least get to suit up in games, if not actually play in any. This season, he's signed on to play with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the Pittsburgh Penguins' affiliate, meaning he has Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry and last year's NHL backup, 28-year-old Casey DeSmith, ahead of him on the depth chart. It's a harder path than that of the, say, Carolina Hurricanes.

I'll always remember his fierce battle with Henrik Lundqvist in the 2014 Easter Conference Final, as he single-handedly forced the New York Rangers to play two more games than they had to, seemingly by sheer will.

Here he is wearing the Bolts' worst-ever white (then-away) uniform on card #60 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set and Threads sub-set:

It features a black game-worn jersey swatch that is probably from the darker home uniform.

Niklas Backstrom Swatch Card

The Minnesota Wild are currently mired in what seems like their worst slump of the season, at the worst time possible. For a while, as the team was on top of the Western Conference standings, all the talk was about how Bruce Boudreau is an amazing regular-season coach, how acquiring Eric Staal gave the team the best depth in the league - and perhaps the best center line in the NHL as well. And Devan Dubnyk was the leading candidate for the Vezina Trophy.

All that got me thinking about the history of goaltending in Minnesota. With his second Vezina-caliber season in three years, Dubnyk is showing signs of eventually becoming the best goalie in franchise history, a spot that is currently reserved for Niklas Backstrom.

Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson also deserve some credit, and José Theodore's season in Minny wasn't too shabby (15-11-3, 2.71 GAA and .916 save percentage in 32 games), but all things being equal, Dubnyk and Backstrom rule the Wild era of hockey in the State of Hockey. They come out ahead of the likes of Sebastian Bach's brother Zac Bierk, a soon-to-be-retired Ilya Bryzgalov, John Curry, Wade Dubielewicz, Derek Gustafson, Matt Hackett, Josh Harding (he who had multiple sclerosis), Anton Khudobin, Dieter Kochan, ego-driven Darcy Kuemper, and Jamie McLennan.

Lest we forget, however, that the Minnesota North Stars have had some decent netminders as well, including Miracle On Ice goalies Jim Craig and one-gamer Steve Janaszak, All-Stars Gump Worsley and Don Beaupre, Stanley Cup finalists Gilles Meloche and Jon Casey, Canadian Olympian Ken Broderick, Gary Edwards, Gilles Gilbert, WHA superstar Jean-Louis Levasseur, franchise record-holder Cesare Maniago, Roland Melanson, and a list of lesser-known athletes such as Gary Bauman, Daniel Berthiaume, Brian Hayward, losses specialist and record-holder Pete LoPresti, Markus Mattson, Lindsay Middlebrook, Jarmo Myllys, minor-league minute-muncher Fern Rivard, Mike Sands, Gary Smith, Finnish Olympian Kari Takko, Darcy Wakaluk, and Carl Wetzel.

And before all that was Hockey Hall Of Famer Frank Brimsek.

In addition to Brimsek, the following goalies from Minnesota are in the U.S. Hockey Hall Of Fame: Sam Lopresti, Jack McCartan, Larry Ross, Willard Ikola and Mike "Lefty" Curran.

So, in the grand scheme of things, my all-time ranking of Minnesota goalies would look like such:

1. Brimsek
2. Backstrom
3. Dubnyk (would move into #2 with a Vezina win or upon setting Wild career records)
4. Maniago
5. Beaupre

Which brings me to this beautiful card of Backstrom's, from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set and Threads sub-set:

It's #71 in the series, showing him wearing the Wild's white uniform, beautifully capturing the uniform's red and green highlights; it contains a matching game-worn jersey swatch.

Daniel Alfredsson Swatch Card

There have been a few tear-inducing, touching moments in Ottawa Senators achievements this year, including the team making former coach and GM Bryan Murray the first inductee in its Ring Of Honor.

Closely tied to Murray is Daniel Alfredsson, the Sens' longest-serving captain and team leader in most offensive categories. Alfie himself was honored last month, as the team retired his #11:

#Celebrate11 pic.twitter.com/dcIrXsi7Y9

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) December 29, 2016

Alfredsson isn't just the landmark Senator, the team's first player to win a major award (Calder Trophy), the first NHLer to score a shootout goal, the first European to captain his team to a Stanley Cup Final (losing to the Murray-built Anaheim Ducks in 2007), the only Sen to improve his points total in six consecutive seasons (1998-99 to 2005-06), but he was also Team Sweden's leading scorer in its Olympic gold medal run in 2006.

He will be an IIHF Hall Of Famer (Olympic gold and silver medalist, two-time World Championship silver medalist, with two bronze medals for good measure) as well as a Hockey Hall Of Famer, what with 444 goals, 713 assists and 1157 points (all Sens team records) in 1246 regular-season games (one short of Chris Phillips' team record), as well as 51 goals, 49 assists and 100 points (all Sens records) in 124 playoff games. His 22 points in the 2006-07 playoffs - tied with teammates Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley - were tops in the NHL.

Here he is wearing the Sens' white (away) uniform, on card #9 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle collection and Threads sub-set:

It features a black game-worn jersey swatch.

Alfredsson is currently the Sens' senior advisor of hockey operations, sort of an associate-GM position mixed with player-development capabilities, as he sometimes takes to the ice after team practices to help youngsters with certain parts of their game.

Zdeno Chara Swatch Card

It used to be easy to defend Zdeno Chara from critics: at 6'9", his elbows are at everyone else's head, so accidental dangerous hits are bound to happen. There was no excusing this, however:

Playing for Claude Julien's Boston Bruins has a tendency to bring the bully out of anyone, including scrawny little fuckers like Gregory Campbell and even respectable players like Patrice Bergeron at times, so imagine how bad it gets when a douchebag like Brad Marchand or a tower of power like Chara buys into the "we're allowed to be dirty" mantra.

And yet, it has netted them a Stanley Cup (2011), another Cup Final (2013), and a Presidents' Trophy (2014). Chara himself has won the Norris Trophy in 2009 to go along with two First Team All-Star nods (2009 and 2014) and three Second Team All-Star selections (2008, 2011 and 2012) since moving to Boston as a free agent after the Ottawa Senators made the hard decision to keep Wade Redden instead.

As the game has gotten faster, he's been looking more and more exposed out there, and at age 39, we may be reaching a time where not only isn't he on the B's top pairing, but he may soon also no longer be on their first powerplay unit despite his booming shot.

Still, with all the team and individual success he's known, he has been the most successful Bruins captain since Ray Bourque. Like Bourque, he could very well end up in the Hall of Fame.

Here he is wearing the Bruins' black (now-home) uniform, on card #48 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set and Threads sub-set:

It features a matching black game-worn jersey swatch.

Henrik Lundqvist Jersey Card

... And he's back.

After another one of his legendary slow starts, Henrik Lundqvist is back in form, finally over the .900 save percentage barrier, on the strength of a .941 showing and 1.62 GAA in his last three games, including a would-be lop-sided loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night that he kept in the 2-1 margin; the Oilers completed the score with an empty-netter. He made 30 saves on 32 shots, a lot of them spectacular, such as this one:
The Rangers will need him playing like King Henrik if they want to make another post-season run, especially after losing out most of their bottom-6 forwards and defenseman Anton Stralman to free agency. I still stand by my pre-season prediction that despite injuries, they will hold on to a guaranteed playoff spot, but it won't look easy all the time.

Here's a miniature card of Lundqvist's, from Upper Deck's 2009-10 Champ's set (#MT-HL of the Threads jersey sub-set), featuring a tiny blue game-worn jersey swatch matching the Rangers' classic blue uniform from the black-and-white picture:

It's small, but the swatch is pretty much regular-size.

Samuel Dalembert Swatch Card

I bought a few multi-sport, guaranteed-hit repacks a few months ago, and unfortunately (for me), it was filled with more baseball and basketball than hockey and football. And I'm pretty sure this ''hit'' would have been a ''miss'' for a bunch of other people, but as a Quebecer, getting a fellow Montrealer is a heck of a consolation prize.

And that's where Samuel Dalembert comes in. A native Haitian, he moved (with his family) to Montréal at age 14, and promptly entered and starred in local basketball programs, eventually landing at Seton Hall University on route to the NBA.

Known for his defensive skills (particularly his shot-blocking abilities), he spent the biggest part of his pro career with the Philadelphia 76ers (8 seasons) before first getting traded, which led to his playing for 3 different teams in the next 3 years, first the Sacramento Kings, then the Houston Rockets, and the Milwaukee Bucks this year.

This card is from his days with the Kings: from Panini's 2010-11 Panini Threads (card #8 of the Century Collection Materials sub-set):

It is numbered 359/399 and contains a white jersey swatch.

Lanny McDonald Jersey Card

I don't have much to add after writing about Lanny McDonald merely five months ago, but as I am classifying my valuable cards in binders, alphabetically, I've run across this minuscule game-worn swatch from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Champ's set (card #CT-LM, Mini Threads sub-set).

It shows him wearing the Toronto Maple Leafs' uniform, although I remember him mostly as a member of the Calgary Flames myself. I do understand, however, that you can't deny 7 seasons in a career, particularly three 40-goal seasons, and four 85-plus-point seasons. But, you know: the Leafs. Urgh.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992.